Former NSW treasurer Matt Kean to chair climate change body

Former NSW Liberal Treasurer and clean energy champion Matt Kean will chair the nation’s top climate policy body, in a major coup for the Albanese government that will challenge the federal opposition as it ramps up criticism of Labor’s renewables rollout and spruiks nuclear energy.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Kean, who resigned from NSW parliament last week and served as energy minister for four years, was uniquely qualified to lead the Climate Change Authority, which is an independent body tasked with giving the federal government expert advice.

Matt Kean, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a press conference on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Mr Kean understands the opportunity that the transition to clean energy represents for our nation. He understood it as a member of the NSW government, and he understands it as someone who has focused his working life in recent years on making a difference, not just today, but for generations to come,” Albanese said.

Kean’s appointment is a major development in the federal energy debate, given the former NSW deputy Liberal leader pushed his government to adopt the most ambitious climate change and renewable energy policies in Australia.

It will allow Labor to point to Liberal support for its renewables rollout as federal Coalition leader Peter Dutton reignites the country’s climate wars by promising to scrap the government’s legislated 2030 emissions reduction target and build seven nuclear power plants by 2050.

Kean will head the Climate Change Authority as it provides advice to the Albanese government on its 2035 emissions targets, meaning any criticism from the federal opposition will be seen as an attempt to discredit a recommendation from the senior Liberal MP.

Kean has also been a strident critic of any move to slow the rollout of renewable energy, and has advocated against measures to boost fossil fuels – two issues the federal Coalition has thrown its weight behind.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Kean could help to unite Australians as new polling shows voters are split on nuclear power but strongly support renewables. Bowen said Kean’s time in public office had been marked by major reform and “the ability to bring people from across the political spectrum with him for the good of the community”.

Asked Monday for his view on nuclear power, Kean said he had not received any advice that indicated nuclear energy was a viable option in a net-zero emissions future.

“As the NSW energy minister in 2019 … I was told the first day on the job that in the next decade … coal-fired power stations would come to an end and we needed a mechanism to replace that capacity. We looked at all options, including nuclear,” he said.

Matt Kean after being named the new chair of the Climate Change Authority.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The advice that I received at the time, which was most compelling, was from the chief scientist of NSW, professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, and he is one of the few people in the country who has run a nuclear program … [He said] it would take far too long and would be far too expensive for NSW.”

Kean cited CSIRO and AEMO advice to point out that wind and solar farms are the cheapest electricity sources.

“They very clearly say that the cheapest way to transition our electricity system is to move towards renewables, backed up by firming and also storage. That’s what the CSIRO says, that’s what AEMO says, that’s the evidence available to us, I’m not aware of anything different,” Kean said.

Kean resigned last week after 13 years in NSW parliament. While the climate wars embroiled his federal Coalition counterparts, Kean managed to drive the NSW government to an ambitious emissions reduction target, earning the ire of conservatives and some of his colleagues in Canberra.

As NSW energy minister between April 2019 and March 2023, he was instrumental in setting a higher climate target for NSW than the former Morrison government’s national target. He committed NSW to cut emissions 50 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2035, and drove renewables investment by designating special zones for project development across the state.

Kean will replace Grant King, who is a former managing director of Origin Energy and former president of the Business Council of Australia.

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